A book review
This is my first post, hopefully this one is fruitful for you all! I wrote this book review about a year ago when I first time entered college. This is one of the assignments given for every new student genuinely.
Book
Identity
The title : SEMANTICS : An
Introduction to the Basic Concepts
The author : Prof. Dr. D. Wagiman
Adisutrisno, M.A.
Editor : C. Widyo Hermawan
Publisher : C.V Andi Offset
Publish Place : Yogyakarta
Year of
publication : 2008
Size : 13 x 19 cm
Number of pages : viii + 88 pages
ISBN : 978-979-29-0613-4
About Author
Prof. Dr. D. Wagiman Adisutrisno,
M.A. was born in Kulon Progo, May 10th, 1948. He studied in Sanata Dharma University and finished his degree in 1973. In addition, he finished his master in 1984 in Santo Thomas University. He
continued his study in Malang State University in 1992. Some of books that he wrote were Case
Grammar (2003) and Education System Analysis : A Case for Indonesia (2003).
Now, he is a lecturer in FKIP Unika
Mandala Surabaya, Petra Surabaya University and STIBA Satya Widya Surabaya
University.
Contents
of the book
This book contains five chapters. Chapter 1 presents
the writer's point of view about the scope of the study of semantics. Chapter 2 deals
with the approaches to study semantics. Chapter 3 presents various kinds
of word meanings.Chapter 4 discusss the nature of
sentences meaning. Chapter 5 presents the nature off utterance meaning, that
is, the meaning of sentences in real life context of language interaction.
Chapter 1 explains about the scope of
semantics which is complete by the define about language. There are some
defines of language from any countries. Chapter 2 contains two approaches to the
study of meaning in language, those are the contextual approach and the
mentalistic approach (Leech, 1981; Palmer, 1982 ). Chapter 3 presents the
different meanings that words have. Word meaning comprises the conceptual
meaning, componential Analysis, Semantic field,
metaphors, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective
meaning,conversion, synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homonymy, hypnonymy,
meronymy, collocation, and idioms. Chapter 4 which is explain about meaning of
sentences.
In chapter 4 also discussed tens arguments of Fillmore (1968) in his
semantic-based “Case Grammar”. The ten arguments are agentive, experincer,
instrumental, objective, source, goal, locative, temporal, comitative, and
benefactive. Wagiman, 2003, quite similar to Fillmore (1981) identifies the
kinds of arguments are agent, patient, experiencer, beneficiary, instrument,
complement, and location. Chapter 5 explains about utterance meaning which is
support by elements of communication, major or macro communicative functions,
deictic word, speech acts, implicatures and implicayions, presuppositions, and
concluding remarks.
Advantages of the books
-
The book contains a lot of knowledge about
semantics that is very useful for us. The book is equipped by concepts from
experts in their each scope.
-
The book is also equipped by simple illustrations.
-
The book contains relevant examples.
-
The book is not too thick for me.
- The topics of the book is quite interesting
for other person who want to understand about semantics.
-
The punctuation is appropiate.
-
Contents of the book is clear, obvious and
easy to read.
Weakness
of the books
-
The language used is difficult for
beginners to understand.
- The diagrams presented are quite boring for some readers.
Conclusion
The book is very fruitful for readers because this book explains many things about semantics.
Not only the explanations, but also the the things such as examples, diagrams, rules, illustration, etc.
